The History of the Piano

As we celebrate the anniversary of the invention of the piano, it's hard to believe that the baby grand is three hundred years old beginning in this new millennium. The appearance of a grand piano in the home is certainly a symbol of culture. Playing the piano has always been a popular pastime.

Let's take a look at some of the ancestors of the piano keyboard:

This keyboard instrument was first made in Greece over two thousand years ago. It was called "hydraulis" because it used water and air pressure by a hand pump to make the sound. During the Roman empire the organ was used at ceremonies and gladiator events.

This instrument had a very soft, delicate sound ranging from pianissimo to mezzo-piano. The strings were struck by a metal rod called a "tangent." When the key was pressed down, the tangent rose to strike the string and stayed against the string until the key was released. A clavichord could be placed on a table to be played or often had its own case. There were no damper pedals for the feet to use. All the clavichords prior to 1720 had fewer strings than keys. Such instruments were called "fretted." The introduction of "unfretted" clavichords was made by Daniel Tob circa 1720.

This instrument often was large and decorated very elaborately. The keys on the keyboard were ivory or sometimes even pearl. It was an altogether different instrument from the clavichord, making its appearance about a century after the invention of the clavichord. It achieved its first triumph in England during the Elizabethan period. Queen Elizabeth played one herself. Instead of being pressure struck as was the clavichord, the string was mechanically plucked. The main part of the harpsichord's action was the jack, a long wooden arm, which had a plectrum made from crow quills or leather, at the upper end. The jack rested on the end of the prolonged lever of the key, which when depressed, sprang up to that the quill plucked the string and then fell back down again. Each key was associated with several jacks which produced a slightly different tone, due to the different material need for the plectrum. There were also several strings to each key which produced higher or lower octaves.

The harpsichord had two manual keyboards and many stops by which the various jacks and strings could be brought into play, making some degree of registration possible.

Bach and his contemporaries used the registers of the harpsichord to a lesser extent than do most modern harpsichord players. A compelling reason for this is the fact that in the old harpsichord the change of registers was made exclusively by hand stops, not by pedals such as are used in most of the modern reproductions. This, of course, puts a definite limitation on the free and frequent change of registers.

The greatest deficiency of the harpsichord was its inability to produce gradation of sound by a lighter or stronger touch. In a certain respect the clavichord approaches the pianoforte closer than the harpsichord since it can produce a gradation of sound even though the range isn't very large.

The natural desire seems to have grown up for a keyboard instrument combining the clavichord's power of accentuation, crescendo, diminuendo, and cantabile with the force and brilliance of the harpsichord.

In 1698 Bartolommeo Cristofori began work on a special keyboard instrument that could play both loud and soft. Cristofori substituted hammers for quills. By 1709, Cristofori had made four pianofortes in Florence. Cristofori died in 1731.

As might be expected, the pianoforte, during its emergence in the second half of the eighteenth century was received with hostility as well as enthusiasm. The Germans, unwilling to give up their beloved clavichord, rejected it most persistently; the French remained skeptical; but the English adopted it wholeheartedly.

There had been other earlier experimental attempts on the piano; but it was only with Cristofori that the principle of the hammer-action really established itself. This new invention was called a pianoforte because it could be played "soft" or "loud." Christofori's mechanism was extremely clever. There was an escapement by which immediately when any hammer struck a string it returned, leaving the string free to vibrate. There also were dampers which fell at once upon the string and stopped its vibration, bringing the sound to an immediate end when the player's finger allowed the key to rise.

Gottfried Silbermann, the German organ builder, built a new piano. J.S. Bach played several of Silbermann's pianos while visiting Frederick the Great. The King had purchased over a dozen of the new pianos before Bach arrived.

This piano had an entirely new form with the strings descending below the keyboard. The oldest upright grand was made by Frederici of Gera, in Saxony, in 1745. Frederici also invented the Square Grand.

This instrument had the tuning block inverted. The strings were vertical instead of horizontal. These elegant pianos were beautiful pieces of furniture. Carved wooden legs accented the cabinet. A patent was taken out by John Isaac Hawkins, who invented two new features for the piano: the use of coiled strings for the bass, and a sostinente that set hammers to motion by rollers. Hawkins' piano was played in public at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, in 1802.

The first piano ever made in America was built by John Behrend of Philadelphia in 1774. At first the framework of the piano was made of wood which proved not to be strong enough.

Doubtless, there were many improvements to be made on the piano. Piano makers had a problem with the wire used for the strings. If the wire was too thin it couldn't stand the blow of the hammers. On the other hand, if the wire was too thick the wooden cabinets weren't strong enough to support the strain. A young Scotch tuner named William Allen who worked at Stodart's produced an upper frame combining plates of iron and brass, bound together by wooden crossbars intended to bear the pull of the strings. The patent (No. 4431) was dated January 15, 1820. Alpheus Babcock made the first full cast-iron frame in 1825. In 1831 Allen patented his invention of the cast-iron frame which combined the string-plate, iron bars and wrest plank in one casting. In Boston about the same time, Conrad Meyer of Philadelphia claimed to have invented a metal frame in 1832. It seems that all three men, Allen, Babcock and Meyer each built a square grand around the same time.

In 1853 Jonas Chickering combined the overstringing with a metal frame in one casting in a square grand. Steinway & Sons made a further improvement on the piano in 1859 by dividing the overstringing into two crossings--that is, he put the longer bass strings at an angle across some of the shorter strings. The Steinway & Sons firm patented this improvement and eighteen other improvements of the piano in their first two decades as a firm.

It took the pianoforte just about a century from its birth to about 1800 to overtake the harpsichord and clavichord as the most favored keyboard instrument, for the newer type of instrument was only slowly subject to improvements and the older were in their full glory of perfection. It is a pity that the pianoforte did so oust its predecessors, for the three instruments have different qualities, and though one house will not as a rule suitably hold the three, or one household make use of them all, yet for the music composed for their capacities and their techniques, the harpsichord and clavichord are irreplaceable.

The soundingboard of a piano is made of spruce that may have taken 500 years to grow. The hammers are voiced to perfection. The harder the hammer, the shorter the tone. . . the softer the hammer, the longer the note carries. There are 12,000 parts to a grand piano. It is no wonder that George Bernard Shaw said, "The pianoforte is the most important of all musical instruments; its invention was to music what the invention of the printing press was to poetry."

What better way to Celebrate the Piano than to begin piano lessons or start practicing again, learning pieces by the great composers of the piano? This month's downloadable music is a Bagatelle by Beethoven. You will need the free Acrobat Reader to view and print the music.

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